That's Amore!

I don't know why making homemade spaghetti sauce seemed like a good idea in the middle of a work week, but I couldn't get rid of the siren call of making a slow simmered dinner on Tuesday night. The weather's a little cooler, I had canned tomatoes in the pantry and, so far, the perfect marinara sauce has eluded me. Mine have been too thin, too thick, too heavy, not enough flavor, too overpowering. I. Want. Perfection.

I did my research and came up with a basic recipe that seemed like it would work. Naturally, diving into the procedure, I discovered that I did not have ALL of the ingredients in the required quantities, but us Sagittarians are, if nothing else, Master Improvisors, so I dove in anyway. The end result is pretty damned good. Okay, I MAY have put in a little too much wine. *Ack* That hurt to even say it. Enough apologies, here's the recipe, Nina style:

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, sliced (oh, go on -- add a few more cloves)
8 oz. fresh mushrooms, chopped (might add more next time, might not)

1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 28-ounce can Italian plum tomatoes, chopped, juices reserved
1 cup red wine
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, oregano, and thyme

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic; sauté 1 minute. Add mushrooms and crushed red pepper; sauté until mushrooms just begins to soften, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and reserved juices. Cover and simmer 15 minutes. Add tomato sauce, sugar, basil and oregano. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Uncover and simmer until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Season with Kosher salt and pepper.

This was thick but not clumpy, had a WONDERFUL texture with the mushrooms, and an awesome flavor. It's a keeper.

Now, in addition to the great recipe, I had a bottle of Bolla Chianti (thank you, Exxon), and Pandora One (thank you, Rick) blasting my Dean Martin channel with "Volare," "That's Amore," and other absolutely perfect Italian inspirational tunes. Apologies to the neighbors. My singing got louder as the level in the chianti bottle went down. Murphy the basset hound started howling at one point, which did temper my singing somewhat . . . .

Eliminate the singing if you must, but definitely try this recipe!